Fic: Comes Out of Darkness, Morn (27/37)
Mar. 18th, 2012 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sara_wolfTitle: Comes Out of Darkness, Morn
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Pax's disappearance shattered Paige. Losing Prue, three years later, reopens old wounds that she thought she'd managed to close off, forever. But, through tragedy comes a sliver of light, and discovering that she's a witch is only the beginning...
*****
Four Months Later
Phoebe burst into her bedroom, making a beeline for the cluttered dresser and rifling anxiously through the detritus on top. She barely glanced up when Cole appeared in the doorway, hovering uncertainly like he was unsure of his welcome.
"Have you seen my potions book?" she asked, going back to her rummaging.
"I didn't think that you could save Leo with a potion," Cole said, but Phoebe shook her head.
"It's not just to save Leo," she told him, "it – it's to save all of us."
"Oh, yeah?" Cole remarked, as he came into the bedroom. "How?"
"I – I don't know," Phoebe stammered, anxiously. "I just – I can't just sit around and do nothing. I have to – what's that?" she demanded, seeing a small, black box in Cole's hand.
"This?" Cole said, glancing down at his hand as if surprised to see the box there. "Oh, it's just something that I've been waiting for the right moment to give you." He flipped open the box, and Phoebe gasped at the sight of the beautiful diamond ring nestled inside. "It's not your Grams'," he commented, "But, hopefully it's not cursed, either."
"I don't think now's the right time," Phoebe said, softly, but Cole shook his head.
"I think now's the perfect time," he corrected her, gently. Slipping the ring onto her finger, he cradled her hand in his. "This way, no matter what happens, you'll always know that I love you."
"It's beautiful," Phoebe murmured, quietly, closing her hand into a fist around the ring. "Now, you have to go," she told Cole, hurriedly, shoving him toward the door, but Cole refused to budge.
"I'm staying here with you," he told her, stubbornly, and Phoebe stared at him in disbelief.
"Do you want me to watch you die, too?" she demanded, her voice cracking with emotion. She dashed away the tears falling from her eyes, glaring at him.
"If that's what it takes to save you, yeah," Cole retorted, and Phoebe let out a bitter bark of laughter.
"No," she told him, angrily. "I'm supposed to save you, that's why I had that premonition."
"You're not meant to stop every premonition, and you know it," Cole reminded her, gently. "Maybe you didn't get that premonition to stop it, but to prepare you for what's to come."
~*~*~
They were standing in the chapel in the mausoleum. Phoebe went to thread a rose through Cole's buttonhole, hissing when she pricked her finger on the thorn, a bright red drop of blood welling up on her thumb. Cole brushed his lips over her thumb, gently.
"Do you have the rings?" the priest asked, and Leo pulled the rings out of his breast pocket.
The ceremony was short and simple, and she couldn't remember the words. The words weren't important. What was important was that, at the end, she and Cole were happily married. Happily ever after. Forever.
~*~*~
As Phoebe placed the last crystal in the circle, she looked up to see an expression of utter betrayal on Cole's face.
"I'm sorry, baby," she choked out, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry."
She reached back, blindly, to grab her sisters' hands, feeling them hold onto her, tightly.
"Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda," Piper started chanting.
"Astrid, Helena, Laura, and Grace," Paige continued, picking up the thread of the spell.
"I will always love you," Cole whispered, and under the cold fury of the Source's gaze, she could see the anguish and pain emanating from the man she'd married, trapped by the demon within. The look on his face almost broke her; she almost couldn't complete the next line of the spell.
"Halliwell witches stand strong beside us," she finally managed to choke out, and she thought she could feel a ghostly hand resting comfortingly on her shoulder.
"Vanquish this evil," she and her sisters chanted in unison, "from time and space."
Cole's mournful eyes never left Phoebe's gaze as he burst into flame. Phoebe never took her eyes off him, squeezing Paige and Piper's hands painfully as she watched him burn. Then, as the flames died down, and they were left alone in the penthouse, her shoulders sagged and her body was wracked with sobs.
~*~*~
Phoebe flamed into the Underworld. She found the Seer waiting for her, a predatory gleam in her eyes.
"Come to me, child," she purred, and from behind her, Phoebe could hear Paige screaming threats at the demon. "Let all the little children come to me," the Seer continued, her voice low, crawling along Phoebe's skin, "for the kingdom belongs to such as these."
She let out a dangerous laugh as she bade Phoebe to kneel in the middle of a candlelit circle. She walked a slow circuit around Phoebe, her fingers trailing lightly along the back of her neck.
"Give me strength, and give me might," the Seer intoned, "to steal a child in still of night."
A part of Phoebe knew that she should be fighting, for her sake, and for that of her son's, but she just couldn't move. She could still hear Paige screaming, telling her to fight, to take back control, and she tried, she really did. But, the Seer was just too strong, and she was frozen by the mad woman's piercing gaze.
"Darkest forces, let it be," the Seer crowed, lifting her arms to the sky as if in supplication to a higher power. "Hear my plea; bring life to me!"
Phoebe could feel something being torn away from her, a pain that lanced straight through her heart. She stared in horror at the halo of black light that enveloped the Seer, sinking slowly into her skin. A wave of dizziness swamped her and she swayed, only to find herself being supported by Paige, having been transported into the same cage that held her sister.
"My baby," she gasped, reaching out and grabbing the bars of the cage. "My baby!"
"He was never yours," the Seer informed her, coldly. "From the moment of conception, this child was mine."
Phoebe burst upright in bed, breathing heavily. She had to pinch herself to make sure she was actually awake; the fear from her nightmares was still crawling over her skin. She reached out blindly, grabbing Cole's pillow from the side of the bed that was still his, and she hugged the pillow to her chest.
"Cole, I miss you," she cried, as she buried her face in the soft pillow. "I miss you so much."
She didn't know how long she sat there, curled up in her misery before her tears finally dried up, and she fell back into a fitful sleep.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A week of almost constant nightmares had left Phoebe irritable and snappy. Which would have been fine if things had been normal; her sisters and Leo would have been more than willing to give her the space she so-richly desired.
But, their life was far from normal, right now. There was a witch hunter on the loose, a potentially-dangerous FBI agent that knew their every secret, and, of course, who could forget the Angel of Destiny's offer that was still hanging over their heads? It was so tempting, the thought of giving up their powers, allowing the Angel to just wipe the slate clean and eliminate the demonic threat from their lives.
'But, it wouldn't really be a clean slate, would it?' Phoebe thought, morosely, as she stared out of the attic's picture window. 'Taking magic and demons out of our lives, now, wouldn't erase everything that's happened in the past. It wouldn't bring Prue back, or Cole, or my baby-'
Phoebe bit back tears at the thought of everything that she'd lost to evil. Hadn't they given up enough; did the universe have to take her child away from her, too?
The sound of footsteps made her look up, hastily wiping tears from her eyes. She saw Paige hovering uncertainly in the doorway, a concerned expression in her dark eyes.
"You okay?" she asked, and Phoebe was about to give her usual answer of fine, but something stopped her. Instead, she wordlessly shook her head, and Paige crossed the space between them to wrap an arm around her shoulders in a hug. "What's wrong?" Paige murmured, quietly.
"It's not fair," Phoebe told her, tears choking her voice. "Why did they have to take my son? He was just a baby, he was innocent – how could the Elders let this happen?" she exploded, angrily, tearing away from Paige to storm across the attic. "Damn it, it's not fair!"
"It never is," Paige said, softly, her voice low and soothing. "Phoebe, what happened to you, to your baby, it's not fair. It'll never be okay that he's gone-"
"I didn't even get to know him," Phoebe cried, her voice cracking on the words.
"I know," Paige said, as she caught Phoebe up in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Phoebe. God, I'm so sorry."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Piper and Paige had gone to rescue Selena from the burning pyre, leaving Phoebe to face Jackman alone. She'd lamented, more than once, not having an active power when it came to fights. Piper would have frozen Jackman, or blown his gun up. Paige would have orbed the gun to her, leaving Jackman defenseless. And her?
'What am I going to do?' Phoebe thought, her black humor rearing its head. 'Premonition the man to death?'
She glared at Jackman across the space that separated them, her eyes never leaving the gun in his hand. She tensed up, getting ready to move, but she wasn't sure if she was going to be fast enough.
Jackman had glanced back to where Piper and Paige where trying to save Selena, and then he turned back to Phoebe with a cruel smirk on his face. "Saving her life just cost you yours," he told her.
She swore that she could hear the hammer fall as he cocked the gun. But, before he could shoot, a brilliant light filled the air between then, and when the light faded, a pair of figures stood in front of her. Phoebe stared at the transparent forms in disbelief, her eyes wide with shock.
"How?" she whispered, and Cole gave her a gentle smile.
"Couldn't very well let you die, now could we?" he asked.
Then, her husband turned cold, furious eyes on Jackman. He reached toward the man, and for a second Phoebe thought that he meant to kill the witch hunter, but Cole simply grabbed for the gun, his hand solidifying long enough to grab the weapon and toss it into the still-burning fire. A second later, Jackman crumpled unconscious to the ground, and Phoebe looked past him to see Selena being supported by her sisters, a short, charred length of wood held firmly in her shaking hands.
Piper and Paige were staring at Cole, quietly, their shock reflected on their faces. After a moment, Piper turned to Phoebe, a calm look on her face.
"We're going to get Selena and Jackman to the car," she said. "Get her to the hospital, and him to Darryl. When you're ready-"
"I'll call Paige or Leo," Phoebe promised, her gaze still locked on Cole's face. "Go, get Selena out of here."
Then, they were alone in the clearing. Cole smiled as he looked at her, love shining in his eyes. He reached for her, and Phoebe closed her eyes for a moment as she felt the light brush of his fingertips across her cheek, a touch that was far too brief.
"How?" she repeated her earlier comment, and her voice broke on the word.
"Magic," Cole answered, with a nonchalant shrug. "We were given one last chance to do something good."
"We?" Phoebe echoed, in confusion, and then she looked at the transparent figure standing beside Cole.
He was a boy of about seven or eight, with dark, messy curls, and bright blue eyes, and a smile that lit up his entire face. Phoebe could feel her breath catch in her throat as she drank in the sight of the child standing before her.
"The soul has no sense of time," Cole said, softly, answering the question that she didn't know how to ask. "This is who he would have been."
Phoebe blinked back a rush of tears as she knelt in front of her son, reaching out to him with a trembling hand. She stopped before her hand could pass through him, skimming through the air over his cheek.
"My baby," she breathed, and the boy gave her another one of those brilliant smiles.
"Don't cry, Mom," he told her, earnestly. "We'll see each other, again. The Elders have promised."
"I miss you," she told him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Both of you," she added, glancing up at Cole.
"We miss you, too," Cole told her, as he put a hand on their son's shoulder. "I love you, Phoebe."
"Love you, Mom," the boy told her, and then they faded away, leaving her alone in the clearing.
Continued here
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Pax's disappearance shattered Paige. Losing Prue, three years later, reopens old wounds that she thought she'd managed to close off, forever. But, through tragedy comes a sliver of light, and discovering that she's a witch is only the beginning...
*****
Four Months Later
Phoebe burst into her bedroom, making a beeline for the cluttered dresser and rifling anxiously through the detritus on top. She barely glanced up when Cole appeared in the doorway, hovering uncertainly like he was unsure of his welcome.
"Have you seen my potions book?" she asked, going back to her rummaging.
"I didn't think that you could save Leo with a potion," Cole said, but Phoebe shook her head.
"It's not just to save Leo," she told him, "it – it's to save all of us."
"Oh, yeah?" Cole remarked, as he came into the bedroom. "How?"
"I – I don't know," Phoebe stammered, anxiously. "I just – I can't just sit around and do nothing. I have to – what's that?" she demanded, seeing a small, black box in Cole's hand.
"This?" Cole said, glancing down at his hand as if surprised to see the box there. "Oh, it's just something that I've been waiting for the right moment to give you." He flipped open the box, and Phoebe gasped at the sight of the beautiful diamond ring nestled inside. "It's not your Grams'," he commented, "But, hopefully it's not cursed, either."
"I don't think now's the right time," Phoebe said, softly, but Cole shook his head.
"I think now's the perfect time," he corrected her, gently. Slipping the ring onto her finger, he cradled her hand in his. "This way, no matter what happens, you'll always know that I love you."
"It's beautiful," Phoebe murmured, quietly, closing her hand into a fist around the ring. "Now, you have to go," she told Cole, hurriedly, shoving him toward the door, but Cole refused to budge.
"I'm staying here with you," he told her, stubbornly, and Phoebe stared at him in disbelief.
"Do you want me to watch you die, too?" she demanded, her voice cracking with emotion. She dashed away the tears falling from her eyes, glaring at him.
"If that's what it takes to save you, yeah," Cole retorted, and Phoebe let out a bitter bark of laughter.
"No," she told him, angrily. "I'm supposed to save you, that's why I had that premonition."
"You're not meant to stop every premonition, and you know it," Cole reminded her, gently. "Maybe you didn't get that premonition to stop it, but to prepare you for what's to come."
~*~*~
They were standing in the chapel in the mausoleum. Phoebe went to thread a rose through Cole's buttonhole, hissing when she pricked her finger on the thorn, a bright red drop of blood welling up on her thumb. Cole brushed his lips over her thumb, gently.
"Do you have the rings?" the priest asked, and Leo pulled the rings out of his breast pocket.
The ceremony was short and simple, and she couldn't remember the words. The words weren't important. What was important was that, at the end, she and Cole were happily married. Happily ever after. Forever.
~*~*~
As Phoebe placed the last crystal in the circle, she looked up to see an expression of utter betrayal on Cole's face.
"I'm sorry, baby," she choked out, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so sorry."
She reached back, blindly, to grab her sisters' hands, feeling them hold onto her, tightly.
"Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda," Piper started chanting.
"Astrid, Helena, Laura, and Grace," Paige continued, picking up the thread of the spell.
"I will always love you," Cole whispered, and under the cold fury of the Source's gaze, she could see the anguish and pain emanating from the man she'd married, trapped by the demon within. The look on his face almost broke her; she almost couldn't complete the next line of the spell.
"Halliwell witches stand strong beside us," she finally managed to choke out, and she thought she could feel a ghostly hand resting comfortingly on her shoulder.
"Vanquish this evil," she and her sisters chanted in unison, "from time and space."
Cole's mournful eyes never left Phoebe's gaze as he burst into flame. Phoebe never took her eyes off him, squeezing Paige and Piper's hands painfully as she watched him burn. Then, as the flames died down, and they were left alone in the penthouse, her shoulders sagged and her body was wracked with sobs.
~*~*~
Phoebe flamed into the Underworld. She found the Seer waiting for her, a predatory gleam in her eyes.
"Come to me, child," she purred, and from behind her, Phoebe could hear Paige screaming threats at the demon. "Let all the little children come to me," the Seer continued, her voice low, crawling along Phoebe's skin, "for the kingdom belongs to such as these."
She let out a dangerous laugh as she bade Phoebe to kneel in the middle of a candlelit circle. She walked a slow circuit around Phoebe, her fingers trailing lightly along the back of her neck.
"Give me strength, and give me might," the Seer intoned, "to steal a child in still of night."
A part of Phoebe knew that she should be fighting, for her sake, and for that of her son's, but she just couldn't move. She could still hear Paige screaming, telling her to fight, to take back control, and she tried, she really did. But, the Seer was just too strong, and she was frozen by the mad woman's piercing gaze.
"Darkest forces, let it be," the Seer crowed, lifting her arms to the sky as if in supplication to a higher power. "Hear my plea; bring life to me!"
Phoebe could feel something being torn away from her, a pain that lanced straight through her heart. She stared in horror at the halo of black light that enveloped the Seer, sinking slowly into her skin. A wave of dizziness swamped her and she swayed, only to find herself being supported by Paige, having been transported into the same cage that held her sister.
"My baby," she gasped, reaching out and grabbing the bars of the cage. "My baby!"
"He was never yours," the Seer informed her, coldly. "From the moment of conception, this child was mine."
Phoebe burst upright in bed, breathing heavily. She had to pinch herself to make sure she was actually awake; the fear from her nightmares was still crawling over her skin. She reached out blindly, grabbing Cole's pillow from the side of the bed that was still his, and she hugged the pillow to her chest.
"Cole, I miss you," she cried, as she buried her face in the soft pillow. "I miss you so much."
She didn't know how long she sat there, curled up in her misery before her tears finally dried up, and she fell back into a fitful sleep.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A week of almost constant nightmares had left Phoebe irritable and snappy. Which would have been fine if things had been normal; her sisters and Leo would have been more than willing to give her the space she so-richly desired.
But, their life was far from normal, right now. There was a witch hunter on the loose, a potentially-dangerous FBI agent that knew their every secret, and, of course, who could forget the Angel of Destiny's offer that was still hanging over their heads? It was so tempting, the thought of giving up their powers, allowing the Angel to just wipe the slate clean and eliminate the demonic threat from their lives.
'But, it wouldn't really be a clean slate, would it?' Phoebe thought, morosely, as she stared out of the attic's picture window. 'Taking magic and demons out of our lives, now, wouldn't erase everything that's happened in the past. It wouldn't bring Prue back, or Cole, or my baby-'
Phoebe bit back tears at the thought of everything that she'd lost to evil. Hadn't they given up enough; did the universe have to take her child away from her, too?
The sound of footsteps made her look up, hastily wiping tears from her eyes. She saw Paige hovering uncertainly in the doorway, a concerned expression in her dark eyes.
"You okay?" she asked, and Phoebe was about to give her usual answer of fine, but something stopped her. Instead, she wordlessly shook her head, and Paige crossed the space between them to wrap an arm around her shoulders in a hug. "What's wrong?" Paige murmured, quietly.
"It's not fair," Phoebe told her, tears choking her voice. "Why did they have to take my son? He was just a baby, he was innocent – how could the Elders let this happen?" she exploded, angrily, tearing away from Paige to storm across the attic. "Damn it, it's not fair!"
"It never is," Paige said, softly, her voice low and soothing. "Phoebe, what happened to you, to your baby, it's not fair. It'll never be okay that he's gone-"
"I didn't even get to know him," Phoebe cried, her voice cracking on the words.
"I know," Paige said, as she caught Phoebe up in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Phoebe. God, I'm so sorry."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Piper and Paige had gone to rescue Selena from the burning pyre, leaving Phoebe to face Jackman alone. She'd lamented, more than once, not having an active power when it came to fights. Piper would have frozen Jackman, or blown his gun up. Paige would have orbed the gun to her, leaving Jackman defenseless. And her?
'What am I going to do?' Phoebe thought, her black humor rearing its head. 'Premonition the man to death?'
She glared at Jackman across the space that separated them, her eyes never leaving the gun in his hand. She tensed up, getting ready to move, but she wasn't sure if she was going to be fast enough.
Jackman had glanced back to where Piper and Paige where trying to save Selena, and then he turned back to Phoebe with a cruel smirk on his face. "Saving her life just cost you yours," he told her.
She swore that she could hear the hammer fall as he cocked the gun. But, before he could shoot, a brilliant light filled the air between then, and when the light faded, a pair of figures stood in front of her. Phoebe stared at the transparent forms in disbelief, her eyes wide with shock.
"How?" she whispered, and Cole gave her a gentle smile.
"Couldn't very well let you die, now could we?" he asked.
Then, her husband turned cold, furious eyes on Jackman. He reached toward the man, and for a second Phoebe thought that he meant to kill the witch hunter, but Cole simply grabbed for the gun, his hand solidifying long enough to grab the weapon and toss it into the still-burning fire. A second later, Jackman crumpled unconscious to the ground, and Phoebe looked past him to see Selena being supported by her sisters, a short, charred length of wood held firmly in her shaking hands.
Piper and Paige were staring at Cole, quietly, their shock reflected on their faces. After a moment, Piper turned to Phoebe, a calm look on her face.
"We're going to get Selena and Jackman to the car," she said. "Get her to the hospital, and him to Darryl. When you're ready-"
"I'll call Paige or Leo," Phoebe promised, her gaze still locked on Cole's face. "Go, get Selena out of here."
Then, they were alone in the clearing. Cole smiled as he looked at her, love shining in his eyes. He reached for her, and Phoebe closed her eyes for a moment as she felt the light brush of his fingertips across her cheek, a touch that was far too brief.
"How?" she repeated her earlier comment, and her voice broke on the word.
"Magic," Cole answered, with a nonchalant shrug. "We were given one last chance to do something good."
"We?" Phoebe echoed, in confusion, and then she looked at the transparent figure standing beside Cole.
He was a boy of about seven or eight, with dark, messy curls, and bright blue eyes, and a smile that lit up his entire face. Phoebe could feel her breath catch in her throat as she drank in the sight of the child standing before her.
"The soul has no sense of time," Cole said, softly, answering the question that she didn't know how to ask. "This is who he would have been."
Phoebe blinked back a rush of tears as she knelt in front of her son, reaching out to him with a trembling hand. She stopped before her hand could pass through him, skimming through the air over his cheek.
"My baby," she breathed, and the boy gave her another one of those brilliant smiles.
"Don't cry, Mom," he told her, earnestly. "We'll see each other, again. The Elders have promised."
"I miss you," she told him, tears welling up in her eyes. "Both of you," she added, glancing up at Cole.
"We miss you, too," Cole told her, as he put a hand on their son's shoulder. "I love you, Phoebe."
"Love you, Mom," the boy told her, and then they faded away, leaving her alone in the clearing.
Continued here
